BIRMINGHAM, Al. -- Matt Witt capped a late rally by coach Travis Ford's Eastern Kentucky University Colonels with a three-pointer from the right wing with 1:43 to go and then Ben Rushing added a free throw with 7.2 seconds remaining as Eastern came back from an eight-point second half deficit to defeat league-leading Samford, 56-53, in Birmingham Thursday night.

Eastern was behind 52-45 with 6:48 remaining, but then outscored Samford 11-1 the rest of the way in improving to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in the Ohio Valley Conference.

Samford drops to 13-9 overall and 8-3 inside OVC action.

"Our guys never gave up," said EKU head coach Travis Ford. "They really worked hard these last four days to prepare for this game.

"I'm so proud that they stayed with the game plan. It was frustrating out there for the first 30-35 minutes because we were getting stops on the defensive end, but couldn't convert on the offensive end.

"Finally, in the last five minutes, we started getting something out of those stops and taking advantage of our opportunities. This was an overall team win from top to bottom.

"To come in here and get a win against the No. 1 team in the conference who has been playing great basketball is just awesome.

"No. 35 (Michael Haney) put us on his back again tonight. I've been telling everybody that he is the best player in the league and he proved it again tonight. He really did a good job for us when we had to have it in all phases of the game."

Haney had the sixth double-double of the season and the 17th of his career as he scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds tonight to lead the Colonels. Junior guard Zach Ingles added 12 points to the EKU attack.

"This is one of the biggest wins we've had since I've been here," said an elated Haney in the locker room after the game. "We're right there in the OVC race now (one game out of the lead in the conference).

"We've got to go on over to Jacksonville State and continue to play with the intensity we played with tonight."

Eastern won the battle of the boards, 35-21, and hit 57.1 percent in the second half from the field to secure the win. For the game, Eastern hit 48.9 percent from the field, compared to just 39.5 by the Bulldogs.

Samford was paced by 12 points each from junior forward J. Robert Merritt and sophomore guard Jerry Smith.

Eastern trailed 29-25 at the break after falling behind by as many as nine points (27-18) earlier in the opening period. The Colonels hit but 42.3 percent from the field in the first half.

Eastern plays at Jacksonville State Saturday (Feb. 12) night at 8:30 p.m. EST.